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16 years

- The amount of time Deanna Stellato-Dudek took off from figure skating, after quitting the sport as a teenager following injuries and burnout. At 40 years old, she just became the oldest woman to ever win a figure skating world championship — after coming back to the sport and switching to pairs.

Three stories you should know this week in women's sports

**1. Jasmin Paris becomes the first woman to ever finish the impossible Barkley Marathons**

Until this weekend, only 17 people had ever finished the Barkley Marathons — a kind of 100-mile cross between ultrarunning & orienteering, which a dash of pure convoluted complicated suffering thrown in. No woman had ever gotten past the fourth of five 20-mile laps within the time limit.

But, in a dramatic final push on Friday, Jasmin Paris — a UK elite ultrarunner, veterinarian, and mom of two — made it with just 99 seconds to spare in the 60 hour cut-off. 😭 She became the first woman and just the 20th person to ever finish.

In 2019, Jasmin was the first woman to outright win the 268-mile Montane Spine Race (even with stopping to breast pump). And her historic finish at Barkley has now made national and international news on the New York Times, CNN, the BBC. Sunday it topped the evening news hour on CBS. In the bizarre traditions of Barkley's, updates only come via one man on Twitter & runners are typically named only by generic identifiers until they make it through the first couple of laps. For hours on Friday, as thousands of people pressed refresh and waited to see if she had made it, #SmallEuropeanWoman was trending across the UK.

"If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Barkley. It’s that you never know what you are capable of until you try.”

LISTEN: Feisty's interview with Jasmin from 2022 after the first year she attempted the event

ENJOY: The photos from on-the-ground and capturing what it takes during those 60 hours

What is Barkley Marathons?

It's inspired by a historic escape from the nearby Tennessee state prison. Legend is that man, who was in jail after assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., made it just eight miles in 54 hours because of the difficult and unforgiving terrain.

The race these days is somewhere around 100 miles and has something around 60,000 feet of elevation — but no GPS watches are allowed, so no one knows for sure. It's not so much about the stats, though, as it is about the fact that you have to find your own way through unmarked terrain and underbrush, with few instructions, in often terrible weather, and retrieve hidden pages from books to prove you covered the ground. Athletes regularly end up lost — sometimes turning up miles from where the course takes place.

There are no directions for how to sign up, no registration form, no insight into who gets accepted and who doesn't. At this point, there are mixed feelings about the gate-keeping and history of the event — but there is nothing but admiration for Jasmin and the four other men (some of them for their 2nd time) who were able to finish in a record-breaking year.

Special love to: Jared Campbell, one of the other men out there. Athletes worked together for the first couple of laps, but on the last lap they're required to go it solo and must head out in opposite directions. Jared waited the few minutes for Jasmin to start the final lap and gave her pick of directions. 💜 A gesture of sportsmanship between athletes — and especially touching at that point, after that many hours and miles.

WATCH: 'The Race That Eats Its Young'

LISTEN: Feisty's own Alyssa Godesky made it to the second lap at Barkley a few years ago, and recapped her experience

(Photo: Jacob Zocherman)

2. Some March Madness highlights

It was close a few times, but all the #1 seeds have made it through to the women's Sweet Sixteen. SEE: Full bracket with upcoming games

If you were going to pick a favorite now, at this point, it's probably still S. Carolina — but USC & Iowa have looked good, too. And, Duke, NC State, UConn, and Gonzaga made both the men's and women's Sweet Sixteen tournaments.

Our only complaint is that because the two tournaments are run separately and have separate media deals (and some different quirks, like home games and stadiums), the broadcasts won't give you the highlights from both at the same time and won't let you add women's + men's to your multicast/multiview screens. It's as if the powers that be can't understand that sports fans are sports fans, and want to see both!

A handful of highlights from the first two rounds of games:

LSU's Flau'Jae dropped her new single during the post-game press conference after the team beat MTSU
Angel Reese appeared to wave "bye" to MTSU's Anastasiia Boldyreva after she fouled out
Both Stanford's Cameron Brink (who was not happy about it) and Iowa State's Audi Crooks fouled out, but respected each other after the game
Crooks, a freshman, scored 40 points in the first round game to get Iowa State through
UConn's Paige Bueckers appears to be fully back from injury — and led the team through to the Sweet Sixteen
Indiana *showed up!* for its women's teams — who will face S. Carolina next
Caitlin Clark's dad yelled at her to stop complaining to the ref about calls during their first round win against Holy Cross
And if you just wanted to see what the Caitlin Clark fuss is about in one video, here's her warmup

Plus, the MTSU coach's granddaughter is a whole WBB vibe.

What women's games to watch next?

They're all 'don't miss' games at this point, but:

S. Carolina v. Indian - Friday, 5 p.m. on ESPN
LSU v. UCLA - Saturday, 1 p.m. ET on ABC
Iowa v. Colorado - Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC
USC v. Baylor - Saturday, 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
UConn v. Duke - Saturday, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN

LAUGH: It's not just us, it's hard to name a male player in the tournament

3. A historical reminder this Women's History Month: Women's sports (and fans) are not new

As everyone gets pumped for the explosion of popularity in women's basketball & soccer & hockey & running, this is your reminder: Women's sports have existed before, female athletes have done amazing things before, and fans have cheered them on before. That's not to belittle the changes happening now, but to recognize what they're being built on top of.

- There was the 1971 women's world cup that attracted 100,000 spectators — even though it wasn't allowed to use the title "world cup" and even though women had systemically been banned from playing soccer over fears they would be too masculine and outdraw the men

- There was the Women's Challenge cycling stage race that the UCI refused to sanction because of its "excessive number of stages" and "excessive climbing" and "excessive distance" — but the women and crowds came anyway

- There were six-day ultra races all the way back in the late 1800s, with prize purses for the women who won

If this time feels different, it's because it is. Let's not let the momentum stop this movement now 👏

Tip of the week

The menstrual cycle has been found to affect day-to-day suicide risk. Women with a history of suicidal thoughts or actions were found to experience an increase in the risk of ideation or planning in the days around menstruation in a study that tracked 119 patients through a daily survey of mental health symptoms.

There is also broader research on premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and the effects of hormonal sensitivity. It's believed in those cases that stabilizing hormone levels could help with symptoms.

It's not clear yet if that would also be the case for suicidal ideation in the wider population and more research is needed, but clinical advice is for those who experience mental health symptoms to track them throughout their cycles, so that their doctors can better work with them on their health care.

LEARN: Predicting Acute Changes in Suicidal Ideation and Planning

The highlight reel

🚵‍♀️ After having done just one event together before this, Anne Terpstra and Nicole Koller swept every single stage at the 8-day Cape Epic to take the overall win — one of the biggest mountain bike races in the world, competed in pairs across South Africa's Western Cape.
⛸️ Figure Skating World Championships: Japan's Kaori Sakamoto came back from 4th place after the short program to become the first woman to three-peat as world champion since Peggy Fleming in 1968. And Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates finished out their undefeated season with their second world title in ice dancing (and their 5th world medal ever).
🥇 Short Track Speedskating World Championships: American Kristen Santos-Griswold won a medal in all five events — including her first world title in a chaotic 1000m race that had to be *entirely called back and restarted* (!) after a crash.
⛷️ Lara Gut-Behrami had already won the overall alpine season world title, as well as the titles in the Super G and giant slalom — and, going into this last weekend of World Cup racing, it looked like she was going to become one of very few athletes to win four titles in one season. And then Cornelia Heutter delivered a surprising upset in the downhill to take the win.
Bree Walker became the first Australian ever to win a bobsled World Cup with a victory in the monobob (the single-person event that was added to the women's program in 2018).
Nordic Combined remains the only event with just men in the next Winter Olympics — though a lack of interest may cut the men's contests, too.
⚽ As the NWSL kicks off its season, it continues to set attendance, viewership, and funding records. The San Diego Wave are being sold in a deal valued at $120 million.
🏒 The Montreal-Toronto PWHL game schedule for next month sold out an NHL stadium in minutes.
Girls wrestling is the fastest growing high school sport. 💪

Feisty recommendations

What to read: The Price She Pays: Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crisis in Women's Sports — putting this one on our pre-order list 📚

What to listen to: "Setting World Records at the World's Toughest Row"

What to watch:Girls Run Ultras — one of 8 short films selected for the Trail Running Film Festival that will tour 50 cities this year

What is blowing up the group text: These women fought off a cougar after it attacked one of them while they were biking, and then held it pinned down with a bike until help arrived